This is true. Like most little girls, my sister and I
could spend hours playing Barbie dolls. This was even in the days before Barbie could bend
her knees or elbows or waist, yet we thought those dolls were just the greatest. We acted
out all the stereotypical scenariosat least one doll got married or went to a formal
every day (because thats when you got to wear the best outfits), and we changed
their clothes and hair constantlytil my dog got a hold of my doll and made her the
first Amputee Barbie, but thats another story.

Anyway, even at six and seven, I wanted Ken around. It was, after all, much more fun to
have him available to take Barbie on picnics or shopping, be a groom or do whatever else I
felt likeI mean Barbie felt likedoing. Even at that age, though, I knew Ken
had to have some money coming in. You cant have shoes of every color without it. And
someone needed to pay for the Malibu beach house. So when Ken needed a source of income, I
came up with the ideal job. I decided hed name new streets. Thats right. He
lived in a fast growing town and everyday the mayor would send him over a map with a new
street penciled in. Ken would ponder it for awhile, then say looks like a
Riverside Road to me, or Primrose Lane would suit this highway and thus
the new street would be named. It was not a bad job. He was able to be around all the
time, yet earned a good check too.

But things change. Ken met an untimely death when my then-baby brother decapitated him
and threw his head down the sewer. After that, Ken just didnt look the same in his
tux and Barbie lost interest. By then too, womans lib had kicked in and Barbie was
busy juggling careers as a flight attendant and doctor and hmm, go-go dancer (loved that
outfit with the fringe, man). True to the era, she had no commitment to any one job or any
one guy. Today, womans rights have come so far, that Barbies maker, Mattel has
broken barriers by not only hiring, but recently publicly firing, its first female CEO.
And even though things have changed, I still think fondly of Ken every time I look at
those lists of fastest growing places in the United States, or best places to do business.
He would have liked to live there, I think, with plenty of streets to name, and money to
make.